BIOLOGY FORM 4 Chapter 9 :Deforestation

A. Introduction
Deforestation refers to the loss or destruction of naturally occurring forests,
primarily due to human activities such as logging, cutting trees for fuel, slash-
and-burn agriculture, clearing land for livestock grazing, mining operations, oil
extraction, dam building, and urban sprawl or other types of development and
population expansion.
Not all deforestation is intentional. Deforestation may be driven by a
combination of natural processes and human interests. Wildfires burn large
sections of forest every year, for example, and although fire is a natural part of
the forest life-cycle subsequent overgrazing by livestock or wildlife after a fire
can prevent the growth of young trees.

B. Causes of Deforestation
1. Agricultural Activities: As earlier mentioned in the overview, agricultural
activities are one of the major factors affecting deforestation. Due to
overgrowing demand for food products, huge amount of trees are fell down to
grow crops and for cattle gazing.
2. Logging: Apart from this, wood based industries like paper, match-sticks,
furniture etc also need a substantial amount of wood supply. Wood is used as
fuel both directly and indirectly, therefore trees are chopped for supplies.
Firewood and charcoal are examples of wood being used as fuel. Some of these
industries thrive on illegal wood cutting and felling of trees.
3. Urbanization:
* Further on order to gain access to these forests, the construction of roads are
undertaken; here again trees are chopped to create roads. Overpopulation too
directly affects forest covers, as with the expansion of cities more land is needed
to establish housing and settlements. Therefore forest land is reclaimed.
* The cutting down of trees for lumber that is used for building materials,
furniture, and paper products have a major impact on forest life. Forests are
cleared to accommodate expanding urban areas. This results in loss of forest
area and massive deforestation.
4. Desertification of land: Some of the other factors that lead to deforestation
are also part natural and part anthropogenic like Desertification of land. It
occurs due to land abuse making it unfit for growth of trees. Many industries in
petrochemicals release their waste into rivers which results in soil erosion and
make it unfit to grow plants and trees.
5. Mining: Oil and coal mining require considerable amount of forest land.
Apart from this, roads and highways have to be built to make way for trucks and
other equipment. The waste that comes out from mining pollutes the
environment and affects the nearby species.
6. Forest Fires: Another example would be forest blazes; Hundreds of trees are
lost each year due to forest fires in various portions of the world. This happens
due to extreme warm summers and milder winters. Fires, whether causes by
man or nature results in huge loss of forest cover.

C. Effects of Deforestation
1. Climate Imbalance: Deforestation also affects the climate in more than one
ways. Trees release water vapour in the air, which is compromised on with the
lack of trees. Trees also provide the required shade that keeps the soil moist.
This leads to the imbalance in the atmospheric temperature further making
conditions for the ecology difficult. Flora and fauna across the world are
accustomed to their habitat. This haphazard clearance of forests have forced
several of these animals to shift from their native environment. Due to this
several species are finding it difficult to survive or adapt to new habitats.
2. Increase in Global Warming:
* Trees play a major role in controlling global warming. The trees utilize
the green house gases, restoring the balance in the atmosphere. With constant
deforestation the ratio of green house gases in the atmosphere has increased,
adding to our global warming woes.
* Deforestation increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The
conitnued degradation of our forest heightens the threat of
global warming because the trees and other plants that takes up carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere to be used for photosynthesis are gone. The burning of
wood or its decay contributes to the release of more carbon which combines
with oxygen in the atmosphere thus increasing further the levels of carbon
dioxide gas that causes greenhouse effect which becomes major problem.
3. Soil Erosion:
* Also due to the shade of trees the soil remains moist. With the clearance of
tree cover, the soil is directly exposed to the sun, making it dry.
* One function of the forest is that its roots hold the soil in place. Without trees
soil erosion and landslides easily happen. When heavy rains and typhoons come,
soil is easily carried to lower areas especially to communities at the foot of the
mountains.
4. Floods: When it rains, trees absorb and store large amount of water with the
help of their roots. When they are cut down, the flow of water is disrupted and
leads to floods in some areas and droughts in other.
5. Wildlife Extinction:
* Due to massive felling down of trees, various species of animals are lost. They
lose their habitat and forced to move to new location. Some of them are even
pushed to extinction. Our world has lost so many species of plants and animals
in last couple of decades.
* Destruction of the forests leads to a tragic loss of biodiversity. Millions of
plants and animal species are in danger of disappearing as a result of
deforestation. Tropical forests are much more biologically diverse than other
forest and a very serious effect of deforestation in tropical countries is the loss
of biodiversity.
6. Silting of Rivers and Dams:
Deforestation results in the silting of rivers sediments deposit which shortens its
life span and clogs irrigation system. As a result of deforestation,
the reservoir behind many dams are filled with sediments more rapidly than
expected.
7. Landslides :
The roots of the trees bind soil to it and to the bedroock underlying it. That is
how trees prevent soil from getting eroded by natural agents like wind or water.
When trees are uprooted, there will be nothing to hold the soil together thus
increasing the risk for landslides which can cause seriously threaten the safety
of the people and damage their properties.
8. Denuded Upland :
After several harvests of the forest the cleared land is no longer suitable for
planting trees. It has become a desert. The transformation of a forest to a semi-
desert condition is called desertification.
9. Degraded Watershed :
When forest mountains are denuded, watersheds are degraded and this leads to
the loss of sustained water supplies for lowland communities. This is because
trees affect the hydrological cycle. They can change the amount of water in the
soil, groundwater, and in the atmosphere.

D. Solutions to Deforestation
1. The best solution to deforestation is to curb the felling of trees, by
employing a series of rules and laws to govern it. Deforestation in the current
scenario may have reduced however it would be too early to assume. The
money-churner that forest resources can be, is tempting enough for
deforestation to continue.
2. Clear cutting of forests must be banned. This will curb total depletion of
the forest cover. It is a practical solution and is very feasible.
3. Land skinned of its tree cover for urban settlements should be urged to plant
trees in the vicinity and replace the cut trees. Also the cutting must be
replaced by planting young trees to replace the older ones that were cut.
Trees are being planted under several initiatives every year, but they still dont
match the numbers of the ones weve already lost.

E. Conclusion
Deforestation is an important issue to be discussed. It has adverse effects on
each living beings' life. Deforestation has become a huge concern in today's life
as there has been a rise in the decline of forests. Trees are cut down in order to
manufacture paper products as well as for livestock farming and so on.

In order to feed the ever increasing population of the Earth, trees and forests are
converted to farm lands. This has become a threat to the world and it has been
seen that rates of decline in the forests are increasing at a rapid rate. This has led
the planet to warm up and leading to high temperatures. This cycle would
continue for the following years to come unless necessary steps are taken to
prevent deforestation. Deforestation has caused fewer trees to grow. It has also
gone a long way in eliminating valuable ecosystems in the planet.

If major steps towards afforestation are not taken, then even the great
adaptability of human beings may not be enough to cope up with the harsh
climate of the future. Deforestation does have solutions. It's just that the people
must step forward. The safe keeping of our precious planet lies with each and
every member of its human population. We are the ones accountable for our
actions even though it is ourselves we are accountable too.